If you or someone you know is in crisis, shows warning signs or contemplates sui...

» Read more

X

Where to go for helpIn cases when a suicide attempt is imminent, call 911.If you or someone you know is in crisis, shows warning signs or contemplates suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. After calling, the national hotline routes calls to trained crisis workers in your area who will listen and explain where you can turn for help. Calls are confidential and free.

ROCKFORD - Knowing what to say and how to listen when someone climbs on a ledge is increasingly a needed police officer skill like marksmanship or performing a traffic stop.

Spotting mental illness and emotional crisis and knowing how to defuse a potentially dangerous situation is a skill officers on the street put to use on a daily basis in Rockford. Those skills are incorporated as part of standard training for new officers, Rockford Police Department Assistant Deputy Chief Doug Pann said.

"When I was on the street as a patrol sergeant, we used the training all the time to help people in a mental health crisis or if they are suicidal," Pann said. "Engaging the person and keeping the dialogue going, maintaining a calm (conversation) to first de-escalate ... and give us time to intervene with the least amount of force as possible."

Illinois Department of Public Health data shows 288 people died by suicide in Winnebago County from 1997 to 2006, an average of 32 per year. So far this year, Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said 36 deaths were the result of suicide.

More than half of Rockford's police force, numbering more than 280, has undergone a 40-hour crisis intervention certification course that teaches officers how to engage people experiencing a mental health crisis or who are contemplating suicide.

Last weekend, Loves Park Fire Chief Philip Foley said volunteer firefighters underwent a mental health intervention training program that teaches basic skills for dealing with patients in mental health crisis or who are suicidal.

Widespread training is a step in the right direction to battle a tragic phenomenon that requires new approaches and new attitudes, said the Rev. Jim Swarthout, who has for nearly 30 years worked as an intervention professional, social worker and priest.

Swarthout has presided over the burial of at least eight men and women who died by suicide over the last two years. He has seen the pain in the faces of those left behind with questions: Could I have done more? Could I have loved him or her more?

Suicide is born in the depth of often hidden depression and despair, Swarthout said.

He argues suicide is more akin to a disease than a choice. And he challenges the idea that someone "commits suicide" any more than someone "commits cancer."

"What good is guilt and shame? Does it work? It never works," Swarthout said. "We all must listen, not judge. Be present in any way possible. The word compassion means 'to walk with.' We need to be co-conspirators of compassion."

Mental Health First Aid, an approach to suicide and mental health crisis intervention that arms non-clinical first responders and teachers with skills to spot warning signs, is gaining traction in Winnebago County.

Page 2 of 2 - An eight-hour program aimed at first responders and teachers, it offers skills needed to spot and respond to a mental health crisis or someone who is suicidal, said Rosecrance Staff Educator Sarra Reichwald, one of three certified trainers in Winnebago County.

She teaches first responders how to spot warning signs like a previous suicide attempt, an organized plan or if he or she expresses feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness or lack of purpose. And she teaches them where to turn to for help.

"We teach them to be very direct," Reichwald said. "If you are seeing some of those potential warning signs or risk factors, you have to ask the question: 'Are you having thoughts of suicide? Are you thinking of killing yourself?' If you aren't direct about it, you won't get a direct answer."